Surgical devices

An SMP is also a good candidate for smart sutures. A responsive suture was made of linear, phase separated multiblock copolymers from oligo(8-caprolactone)diol and oligo(p-dioxanone)diol by Lendlein and Langer (2002). The existence of the 

Switchable and Responsive Surfaces and Materials for Biomedical Applications 

Source Reprinted with permission from Lendlein Danger, (2002). 

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More compliant highly fluorinated polymers for reconstructive surgery (e.g., vascular grafts) and other surgical devices will undoubtedly be developed. Various ophthalmologic aids are also being commonly used. 

For much of the last century, scientists attempted to make useful plastics from hydroxy adds such as glycolic and lactic acids. Poly(glycolic acid) was first prepared in 1954, but was not commercially developed because of its poor thermal stability and ease of hydrolysis. It did not seem like a useful polymer. Approximately 20 years later it found use in medicine as the first synthetic suture material, useful because of its tendency to undergo hydrolysis. After the suture has served its function, the polymer biodegrades and the products are assimilated (Li and Vert 1995). Since then, suture materials, prosthetics, artificial skin, dental implants, and other surgical devices made from polymers and copolymers of hydroxy carboxylic acids have been commercialized (Edlund and Albertsson 2002). 

B.F. Coll, P. Jacquot, Surface modification of medical implants and surgical devices using TiN layers . Surface and Coatings Technology, 36, 867-878, (1988). 

To avoid burns under dispersive electrodes, the lEC Standard for HF Surgical Devices [5] requires that HF surgical equipment having a rated output power of more than 50 W shall be provided with a continuity monitor or contact quality monitor. The most common of these is the contact quahty monitor. A contact quality monitor consists of a circuit to measure the impedance between the two sides of a split dispersive electrode and the skin. This impedance is inversely proportional to the actual area of contact between the patient and the dispersive electrode. A small high-frequency current flows from one section of the dispersive electrode through the skin to the second section of the dispersive electrode. If the impedance between these two sections exceeds a certain threshold, or increases by a certain percentage, the patient contact area has unacceptably decreased, an audible alarm sounds, and the ESU output is disabled. The cable continuity monitor is less common. Unlike the contact quality monitor, this monitor only checks the continuity of the cable between the ESU and the dispersive electrode and sounds an alarm if the resistance in that conductor is greater than 1 2. 

Multiple coil spiral-wound vascular catheter Surgical device suitable for accessing tissue target [53] ... 

A Click, Bioresorbable surgical device for treating nerve defects, US Patent Office, Pat No 4 870 966. 

J.W. Gibson, S.S. Miller, J.C. Middleton, and A.J. Tipton, High viscosity liquid controlled delivery system and medical or surgical device, US Patent 7833543, assigned to Durect Corporation (Cupertino, CA), November 16,2010. 

N. Doddi, C. C. Versfelt, D. Wasserman, Synthetic Absorbable Surgical Devices of Poly-Dioxanone. US Patent 4,052,988. (1976). 

Figure 11.17 shows a typical endoscopic surgical instrument with an LCP tube connecting the handle actuator to the surgical device. A wide range of... 

Control of Smoke Prom Laser/Electric Surgical Procedures (Hazard Control), DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 96-128 (March 1998) describes how to control airborne contaminants generated by these surgical devices. 

There are many medical and surgical devices of various shapes and sizes made of aliphatic polyesters.These devices are made by various processing routes. In general, large-scale devices such as sutures [e.g. Dexon (100%PGA),Viciyl (copolymer of glycolide in combination with L-lactide), Monocry 1 (copolymer of e-caprolactone) or Maxon (copolymer of trimethylene carbonate)] and macroscopic implants used for bone fixation can be manufactured by solvent-or melt-spinning processes. The fibre forms can then be drawn under different conditions in order to orient the polymer chains. Fibres prepared... 

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